Reader: New Year's essay got it just right

The Bristol Press front page article was a fantastic summary that encompassed what can be possible if we really want to improve our national environment. It addressed the need for education and accurately saw that it encompassed not just college degrees but high level technical grads.

The article noted, “It also will take sacrifices,” and “Everyone needs to take a hit.”

To a great degree, few have recognized that our kicking the financial can down the road has had serious consequences. The nearly $20 trillion debt is crushing our nation’s foundation and laying a burden on us, our children and grandchildren. We have been told how well everything is, and it is not. Recognizing a condition for what it is, is the key to resolving the situation.

At the start of World War II, Great Britain’s future hung in the balance. It was recognized when newly elected Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons and his nation and stated, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” The people of that nation took up that challenge and succeeded.

Your article proposed “leveraging” the changes that are coming to our advantage. Those of us who lived during the Great Depression leveraged everything, and we survived despite harsh times.

The article addressed the political gridlock that has persisted in both parties and noted that “most of us can’t remember anything else.” One has to question if that was part of the plan, and the politicians wanted us to accept that as the norm.

Thank you, Bristol Press, for that dose of common sense. There has been precious little of that in the recent past. I particularly liked the last line: “Those that aren’t up to the challenge need to get out of the way.”